A visit to Bigelow Aerospace

A day after a visit to Bigelow Aerospace’s corporate headquarters to interview Robert Bigelow, myself and a number of other reporters traveled up to the company’s manufacturing facility in an industrial park in North Las Vegas (with a spectacular view of the Las Vegas skyline) for a press conference and tour. At the press conference, Robert Bigelow and six other company employees, including project manager Eric Haakonstad, entertained questions for an hour about Genesis 1 and the company in general. A lot of the questions covered the same ground I did with Bigelow himself yesterday; MSNBC’s Alan Boyle has an excellent summary, with photos, of the event. (While those on a separate tour of the plant organized by the Space Frontier Foundation could not take photos, reporters on a separate tour could, albeit with significant restrictions, as Alan discussed in his Cosmic Log account.)

Here are a few photos of my own from the event:

A full-scale mockup of the pressure vessle of the full-sized module Bigelow is developing.

Robert Bigelow and project manager Eric Haakonstad at the press conference.

A view inside the mission control center for Genesis-1. The modern facility, with giant video screens on two walls, was completed just last month.

Several members of Genesis 1 team, as well as one of the ubiquitous (but friendly) security guards, pose in front a full-sized mockup of Genesis 1.